Kristina Hoeppner: 0:02

Welcome to'Create. Share. Engage.' This is the podcast about portfolios for learning and more for educators, learning designers, and managers keen on integrating portfolios with their education and professional development practices. 'Create. Share. Engage.' is brought to you by the Mahara team at Catalyst IT. My name is Kristina Hoeppner. I'm excited to speak with Molebogeng Esther Thage from South Africa. She is the co-author, together with Amokelo Given Maweya, of the chapter'Digital resilience in the 21st

century: 0:42

The role of ePortfolios in fostering adaptive and technological competencies'. This chapter has been published in the book 'Digital resilience of ePortfolios during and Beyond

the COVID-19 pandemic: 0:55

Lessons for the future'. That book was co-edited by Associate Professor Dr. Mpho-Entle Modise and Professor Dr Norman Vaughan, whom you would have heard on the podcast just a few months ago. Thank you so much for taking time today, Molebogeng, to talk about your chapter and your portfolio work.

Molebogeng Thage: 1:18

Thank you very much, Kristina, for inviting me.

Kristina Hoeppner: 1:22

Molebogeng, can you please tell me what you do at your institution?

Molebogeng Thage: 1:27

I serve as a high school teacher teaching learners from grade eight to 12, that is, they are around 14 years to 18/19. I teach well various subjects, but my major subject is English FAL, that is first additional language, and geography to the grade 10s, elevens, and twelfths, and then English FAL to the grade eights and nines. I prefer grade eights and nines because these learners are not English speakers. They come from different backgrounds and they speak native South African languages. So I love teaching English to give them the foundation of English language, especially because I know there are challenges at home. So what I do on my day-to-day basis, I integrate technology into my teaching, expose them to as much technology as I possibly can. Because I'm a departmental head. I use technology in communicating with teachers, with parents, of course, also with learners, and then I also to make education meaningful and inclusive. So in addition, I'm pursuing my doctoral research on classroom dynamics, and I use mainly technology on daily basis. It helps me to achieve academically.

Kristina Hoeppner: 3:02

That's a lot on your plate. What I find interesting is that you said English as an additional language because in Germany and also in other countries, we know of ESL and EFL. So English as Second Language and English as Foreign Language. So second language is taught in the English-speaking country, and English as Foreign Language is taught in the foreign country. So, you having English as additional language is great because in South Africa you speak a lot of languages. So, second language would not really make good sense. How many languages do you speak, Molebogeng?

Molebogeng Thage: 3:40

Okay, I speak around five languages, but I speak three fluently. I use English academically and teaching at school because English is LOLT, the Language of Learning and Teaching. So when I'm at school, I use mainly English, but at home Tswana. And by birth I'm Mopedi. We speak Sepedi at home, but then because I grew up in Bophuthatswana, the home language, we were taught in Tswana, and I have relatives speaking Tshivenda, so I know a little bit of Venda, and then I also have relatives speaking Zulu and Ndebele. My generation had to do Afrikaans at school, so I also know Afrikaans.

Kristina Hoeppner: 4:24

That's a lot of languages. That's really fascinating, growing up in such a multicultural and multilingual context...

Molebogeng Thage: 4:31

Absolutely.

Kristina Hoeppner: 4:32

... which shapes you and how you engage with your students, how you present yourself, also, resilience as learner already comes in there. When did you encounter portfolios for the first time?

Molebogeng Thage: 4:47

At college, I did technology as my ancillary subject, meaning it wasn't my major subject, right? It was just introduction to technology. That is basic computer skills. But then in 2024 I attended an academic conference, The SAERA Conference. It was hosted by the University of Free State in South Africa. So that's where I've encountered ePortfolios. It was during the session where researchers and practitioners were sharing innovative ways of documenting teaching practices. I was intrigued, especially by learner progress, how we can assist the learners progress at school. So yeah, I was struck by how ePortfolios provided structured yet reflective space to capture growth, challenges, and achievements. That experience opened my eyes to especially the value of ePortfolios, not only in assessment but also as a means of professional development.

Kristina Hoeppner: 6:04

Do your students now use portfolios?

Molebogeng Thage: 6:08

They do because I, on regular basis, talk to them about e-Portfolios, digital resilience. So, especially the senior learners, the grade twelves, they are aware of ePortfolios. And then I teach geography. So I would give them tasks that are ePortfolio directed. So they would go out there to download and to save and to manipulate. So definitely, my students are aware.

Kristina Hoeppner: 6:41

Awesome. So let's jump into your chapter,'Digital resilience in the 21st century: The role of ePortfolios in fostering adaptive and technological competencies', which you've authored together with Amokelo Given Maweya. In your chapter, you make the connections between portfolios and digital resilience. How do these go hand in hand for you?

Molebogeng Thage: 7:10

We argue that portfolios and digital resilience go hand in hand because ePortfolios are more than just storage spaces for work. They are dynamic tools that cultivate adaptability. By engaging with ePortfolios, especially in the classroom or anywhere where they are used or where they are relevant, using technology to reflect, to curate, and to present growth. So this process strengthens the ability to adapt to new digital environments. They also help to recover from challenges, build confidence in technological competencies. In essence, ePortfolios become both a mirror of learning and a training ground for resilience.

Kristina Hoeppner: 8:08

So technology really plays a central role for you in that make up. Molebogeng, you and Amokelo have developed a conceptual model for ePortfolios and digital resilience that incorporates technological adaptability and a few more components. Can you please take me through that model and also outline what the significance of it is?

Molebogeng Thage: 8:38

The conceptual framework that we developed highlights especially four main components. Firstly, reflective practice, then technological competence, adaptive capacity, and identity. So, if you think of all these four components, they work together. They show how ePortfolios are not just assessment tools, but they are catalysts for digital resilience. For my work, this model is significant because it guides how well I can help learners build confidence in navigating technology, and then also how teachers can use technology on daily basis, planning lessons, in assessments, and then identifying learners who cannot read at all because you can use technology, and that is actually the biggest problem in schools. You're teaching learners; they cannot read at all. So, if you use technology, you expose these learners to technology in a way you can deal with the challenges that they face on daily basis. And more than anything else, the young kids today, they are the digital age. So if you expose them to technology, they become more interested, and the results are amazing for both learners and teachers, especially the new teachers. If they integrate technology on daily basis, the results are amazing. So for my side, it also strengthens my research on my topic, which is mainly classroom dynamics, by linking pedagogy and digital competencies. So this is what we need in the 21st century. So there's no turning back.

Kristina Hoeppner: 10:35

Yeah. What does that technology capability and the tool use look like on a day-to-day basis for you? Do you have a couple of examples? Because you've just mentioned that some of your learners may not be able to read, and you work on the high school level. What tools do you use for them to create their portfolios or also to engage with other learning?

Molebogeng Thage: 11:02

Luckily we are in Gauteng, and then we have this project by the Department of Education, where they gave schools laptops and tablets. We use those. That is assessment for reading, different assessment of reading English FAL. So these learners would be given those tests, and then they answer electronically, and then the programme itself would mark and then give them feedback, and then teachers would be able to see those. You know, if a learner cannot read, then the teacher will make a follow-up, make a follow-up with the learner and ultimately with the parents, and make a summary using technology to say,"This is a red flag. This child cannot read at all," and then the learner would be given an integration. And I mean other things like the parents would receive the test. So the parent would receive a test to see that"my child cannot read at all, and I must do something." And would even encourage the parents to use these tools at home. In this age, a lot of parents have phones, but they wouldn't think of downloading reading programs like guided reading programs. By so doing, we are actually teaching the parents also that the tools that they have, they can help their their children to read. So we can have what we aim, Gauteng Province is aiming at 100% pass rate.

Kristina Hoeppner: 12:33

Involving the parents in the learning, so that the students are then also encouraged to continue with their learning at home and have the tools available to them to practice in an environment that supports them as well, so that it's not just a school activity.

Molebogeng Thage: 12:51

And I feel it's it's a unique journey for learners and parents as well to see the learners like learning those skills at home, so that it doesn't become a school problem, but then it becomes a community problem or challenge. So they see that they at home also can assist their learners. And believe it or not, there are parents also - you'd find that the parent has a phone, right? In a way, it's an opportunity for them also to improve. I would even tell the parents,"while you are teaching your child," you know, like you'd be sensitive, you can't tell a parent you can't be, but then you'd say, "You also learn, and then you teach your child. Learn so you can teach your child." In a way then parent will also be learning.

Kristina Hoeppner: 13:37

Yeah. Speaking of learning, self-directed learning and reflection are also part of your model, and they drive the portfolio process. How can you, as an educator, support your students who might struggle with self-regulation?

Molebogeng Thage: 13:57

Yeah, self-directed learning and reflection are actually the heart of ePortfolio digital resilience. Not only for learners, well, they don't find self-regulation easy. Teachers can support the learners by scaffolding the tasks into smaller steps because if you give them the whole thing, it becomes difficult for them. But then they take it step by step, that is modelling reflective practice and offering guiding questions that especially will spark independent thought in learners. And then also doing things like reflecting on their work, I think that is also important. So to give feedback that is framed as a dialogue, allowing learners to respond and refine their portfolios. Then we can also add the peer collaboration. When they collaborate, they work together. They can learn a lot from each other, and that way they can see how they're growing and celebrate small milestones that can help build their confidence. This can provide this structure without taking away the ownership, so learners can remain the authors of their own journey, while educators become or remain the facilitators of digital resilience.

Kristina Hoeppner: 15:33

Bringing in other learners, giving feedback, all of those things that are part also of constructivism and having a whole learning community available rather than just looking at one learner by themselves.

Molebogeng Thage: 15:48

Absolutely, collaboration is key. When you find something difficult and you see somebody, I'm thinking of these learners. "Ah, this one can do it. Oh, how did you get this one right? Show me that way." Collaboration does help the learners to grow even more.

Kristina Hoeppner: 16:06

Do you have one or two favourite questions that elicit reflection from your students?

Molebogeng Thage: 16:15

Questions like: Think of your project. What was good and what did not work? What can you do to improve? So they'll reflect on the good. Okay, " project on the environment, that is how we can take care of the environment, was good because we focused on something like recycling." I'm giving an example of the project that they did, recycling and looking after the environment. And then, what did not work? Then it would be, "We just copied and pasted. We didn't read and add our own, and the teacher noticed that it's plagiarism, and the teacher gave us zero mark for that section." Next time, what are you going to do? "Next time, I will make sure that my voice is heard. I will use my own words and acknowledge the authors. I will not just download the project as it is, and print it out and give it to the teacher because that way I didn't learn anything. I must make sure that I learn." It's actually what happened in the last term.

Kristina Hoeppner: 17:32

Then also, therefore, making sure that the students think about what they have done on the project rather than just copying somebody else's.

Molebogeng Thage: 17:42

Absolutely.

Kristina Hoeppner: 17:43

If we're looking at your conceptual model that contains the ePortfolio as very important part, which is influenced by the technological adaptability, by self-directed learning and metacognition, and by critical digital engagement, so the ethical and strategic use of technology. How can a school or university strengthen its use of portfolios to support that digital resilience?

Molebogeng Thage: 18:16

What schools can do to strengthen ePortfolios is to embed them into the curriculum that is into the core subjects, rather than just treating them as optional. They have to embed them into the curriculum. That way, they will require training the teachers and the learners. That is building their confidence in to using digital tools while protecting the ownership in the process, and also encouraging cross disciplinary portfolios that is using reflections, and then also in assessment. You know, like assessment takes a lot of teachers' time. So if they use digital tools, that can save a lot of our work. Instead of sitting for hours and hours marking, especially those short objective questions, if they use digital tools, I mean, in like a minute, you have all the assessment done, and it would even give you the results and what you can do to assist the learners. They connect it directly to employability and personal growth of both teachers, learners, especially at school. Our ePortfolio resilience they actually become the natural outcome, especially if they all are able to use them. They are confident in using digital portfolios.

Kristina Hoeppner: 19:46

For the fast way of giving feedback, would that then involve some sort of artificial intelligence, where a draft of a feedback is given first, and then you, as teacher, review that and see if that is what you want to send out to the students?

Molebogeng Thage: 20:04

Not necessarily AI. The Department of Education has DDD. It's a dashboard. It does have a programme where you can give learners questions and then they answer. So it's questions and then they answer electronically and then they would have like a reflection, or they will have the results at the end, and is sort of a short reflection.

Kristina Hoeppner: 20:29

You would still grade the reflection of the students?

Molebogeng Thage: 20:33

Definitely. As a teacher, I would give the learners feedback on their work.

Kristina Hoeppner: 20:40

You've now outlined a few things that should happen at a school, for example, to support portfolio work, and one big element is to embed it into the curriculum...

Molebogeng Thage: 20:53

Absolutely.

Kristina Hoeppner: 20:54

... so that it doesn't stand to the side. In your view, then, Molebogeng, what should decision makers prioritise if they want portfolios to become more of a standard and accessible part of lifelong learning?

Molebogeng Thage: 21:11

Firstly, it's to make teachers aware of the importance of digital resilience because a lot of them are not aware how important ePortfolios are. So to make them aware, and then also training for the teachers. That is continuous training. That is professional development for teachers. Actually, for teachers, parents, and for learners. So this will strengthen resilience. It will turn their challenges into growth opportunities. I'm thinking here of career mobility and employability. So, if decision makers want ePortfolios to become part of lifelong learning, they have to prioritise accessibility, integration, as I said, into the curriculum, and then also learner ownership. Platforms must be affordable, user friendly, and then, as I said, they must be embedded into the curriculum. Equally important, training for educators and mentors to support reflective practice without taking away agency. When ePortfolios are learner centred, they link employability, so they become powerful tools for digital resilience and sustaining lifelong learning.

Kristina Hoeppner: 22:29

It's always good how you bring in the parents because they, of course, are also on their lifelong learning journey, and their children learn about portfolios at school, create the portfolios there, and then because you want the parents to also be part of that learning community of the children, then they can also learn how to create portfolios and what the benefits are.

Molebogeng Thage: 22:54

Absolutely.

Kristina Hoeppner: 22:55

What would one shift be that educators could make this week to better nurture digital resilience in their learners, whether that's students or also in the workplace?

Molebogeng Thage: 23:10

Educators must encourage learners to upload their assignments. Think about it. Not the right, the primitive way, and then it takes long, and they end up not submitting on time. So they must encourage, teach them how to upload, encourage them to upload assignments or curate a portfolio entry, and ask them briefly reflection on the digital skills they use and how they overcame their challenges if they, I believe, they would encounter challenges. So they must say how they overcame them. So I think this simple practice will nurture their resilience by helping them recognise their adaptability in real time while keeping ownership of their learning process.

Kristina Hoeppner: 24:00

And always the resilience piece in there. Also, when it comes to technology, that you might need to transfer your knowledge from one platform to another and adopt how something works because also the platforms evolve that you're working with or the tools evolve. Therefore, being resilient and not just being focused on one software, but also being able to pivot and try something else, use something else to figure out whether another tool might work better, might help more in learning, and also then in the workplace.

Molebogeng Thage: 24:39

Absolutely.

Kristina Hoeppner: 24:41

Now the last three questions for you, Molebogeng. Which words or short phrases, if you prefer, do you use to describe portfolio work?

Molebogeng Thage: 24:53

I can start with technological competence. I think it's key. Purposeful. Personal, and well, you said three, I'm at number four[laughs]: reflective and adaptability.

Kristina Hoeppner: 25:07

Thank you. What tip do you have for learning designers or instructors who create portfolio activities?

Molebogeng Thage: 25:16

Design ePortfolios with guided autonomy, and then also give learners a structured prompts and milestone that they don't feel lost. Ensure that they retain ownership by choosing what evidence and include how to reflect. This will balance or nurture resilience and then learners' self regulation while feeling empowered to tell their own learning story, you know, their voices must be heard.

Kristina Hoeppner: 25:46

Scaffolding, but not over scaffolding.

Molebogeng Thage: 25:49

Yes, definitely not over scaffolding.

Kristina Hoeppner: 25:53

What advice do you have for portfolio authors?

Molebogeng Thage: 25:57

We all shouldn't see ePortfolios as a storage space. It has to curate with purpose, and it has to be used on daily basis. Reflect on growth and embrace these digital tools to make ePortfolios dynamic. They are important because they keep us up to date. They save our time, and we must remember that they keep evolving. So we have to keep on learning, so we are up to date with what is happening, so we can use them to the utmost best. These ePortfolios are important. They help us in documenting skills, experiences, reflections across different stages of life, school, university, workplaces, and beyond. And then I'm thinking, at the end, one can be able to write a book. I think I'm a writer at heart [laughs].

Kristina Hoeppner: 26:55

You must be, yeah.

Molebogeng Thage: 26:56

Yeah. You go back. You know, you can go back to what you documented, and you'll be able to put together a book.

Kristina Hoeppner: 27:04

And some of your students might be using some of those digital tools to create their own stories, so multimodal stories where they have combined video and imagery and text and all of that.

Molebogeng Thage: 27:16

Yes, especially they love videos, eh? So they'll definitely be able to capture those. So I'll just say portfolios provide adaptability and identity. They become a bridge between what they're learning at school, that is formal education and lifelong learning paths that nobody can take away from them. They are the way to go.

Kristina Hoeppner: 27:41

They absolutely are the way to go, especially how you explain it. While technology is, of course, a big part of the overall context of a portfolio, it is about the documentation of learning, the growth, the adaptability, the resilience, the lifelong aspect of it. So, really focusing on the person themselves rather than on putting the technology into the centre.

Molebogeng Thage: 28:12

Definitely. They are a powerful bridge between growth, personal life, classroom, professional development, and lifelong learning.

Kristina Hoeppner: 28:23

Thank you so much, Molebogeng, for sharing your thoughts on digital resilience and portfolios. It was great to hear what you're researching, what you're exploring with your students at the high school level, and then also how you bring in the parents into that overall learning community. But now I do have a bonus question. And even though Amokelo could not join us today, why did you come together as an English and geography teacher and as a math teacher, And I also learned online a competitive chess player? How did it come about that you are talking about portfolios?

Molebogeng Thage: 29:08

[Laughs] Well, where do I start? We are the two people who are more interested into the academics. He would share what he's doing. That is, his research is obviously on math and science, and then I would share mine. So we went to SAERA Conference. When we came back, I said to him, "This digital ePortfolio that I'm interested in. If you want to join me, let's co-write this." You know, that's how it started. Initially, I wasn't even thinking he's a maths and science teacher and chess player, and I'm a geography and English teacher. It was about ePortfolios because they are important, you know? And then we brainstormed. It's a deputy principal. I report to him. When we're done with our meetings, we would talk about e-portfolios.

Kristina Hoeppner: 30:01

Awesome! Thank you so much, Molebogeng. It was really great to hear from you and dive a little bit into portfolios and how digital resilience plays into it, so that we also hear more about the work that has been collected in the book that Mpho-Entle and Norm co-edited. So thank you so much for your time.

Molebogeng Thage: 30:23

Thank you, you too, for the opportunity to share my perspectives on ePortfolios.

Kristina Hoeppner: 30:31

Now over to our listeners. As you think about your own portfolio work, what resonated most with you today? Share your thoughts on LinkedIn, Bluesky, or Mastodon, and tag me or send me an email. This was 'Create. Share. Engage.' with Molebogeng Thage. Make sure to check out the resources in the episode notes in your podcast app or at podcast.mahara.org. If you found this valuable, share it with a colleague, who would appreciate it, too. Our next episode will air in two weeks. Until then, create, share, and engage.